


tell your heart just to wait a little longer

by theglitterati



Category: Free!
Genre: (i mean not really cause it's short but that's the vibe), Confessions, Crybaby Matsuoka Rin, Getting Together, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theglitterati/pseuds/theglitterati
Summary: Rin wants to confess, but he knows how poorly Haru reacts to change.The key is taking it slow.
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 12
Kudos: 96





	tell your heart just to wait a little longer

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Take This To Heart" by Mayday Parade.
> 
> Me: I am capable of watching an anime series without writing fic about it.  
> Free!: bitch you thought!

Rin stops on his way to Haru’s to visit with the cat that holds court on the stairs. She’s gained weight, is surprisingly heavy for a stray. Haru or the neighbours must be feeding her. Rin lifts her up and lets her nuzzle his chin. 

She quickly discovers that Rin has food, too, in the paper bag he carries. “No, that’s not for you,” he says, setting her down. She seems to frown at him, but then she finds a ray of sunlight and stretches out, and all is forgiven.

Rin leaves her and climbs the rest of the steps to Haru’s door. He knows Haru is there, but he doesn’t answer the first time Rin rings, or the second. Maybe he’s in the bath again. The door’s unlocked, so Rin lets himself in.

Haru’s not in the bath. He’s in the dining room, ten feet away from the door, math textbook open on the table. He glances up at Rin with mild curiosity.

“Yo. Do you just not answer the door at all?”

“It was open.”

“You shouldn’t let random people walk into your house.”

“You’re not random,” Haru replies with a shrug.

Rin frowns at him. “That’s not what I… whatever. I brought stuff to make us dinner.”

Now he has Haru’s attention. “What is it?” he asks, deeply suspicious.

“Relax, it’s fish. Salmon, not mackerel, but it’ll be good. Trust me.”

The furrow between Haru’s brows disappears. “Okay. I trust you.”

Rin leaves him to his studying and heads for the kitchen, fighting a grin as he goes.

Haru trusts him.

Soon, the smell of pan-seared salmon and rice fills the house. Rin serves plates for each of them, mixing up a seaweed salad for the side. It looks good, like something his mom might make. Gou would call it a balanced meal. Nagisa would complain that it doesn’t have enough sugar.

“Arigatou,” Haru says, when Rin sets the plate in front of him.

“In English,” Rin chides. They’re been practicing since Australia. If Haru is really going to compete internationally, he needs to be more confident speaking other languages.

 _“Thank you,”_ he says quietly, the _th_ sound softening on his tongue.

_“You’re welcome.”_

Haru chews the first bite thoughtfully, but doesn’t say anything. Rin just lets him eat, enjoying his own food. 

“It was good,” Haru finally says, when his plate is clean.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He clears the plates away, leaving Rin alone at the table.

He drums his fingers on its surface. Haru liked the meal. It was different from what he normally ate, but he gave it a try, and he liked it. He adapted.

Rin only hopes he’ll adapt as well when he tells him he’s in love with him.

*

If Haru was anyone else, he’d have realized that Rin loved him months ago. Makoto knows, and so does Sosuke, though they’ve never talked about it. Gou has known for years, when he’d visited home and shouted about how he hated swimming and everyone involved in it, yet the picture of him and Haru by the pool remained stuck in the frame of his bedroom mirror. God, even Nitori has probably worked it out by now.

But Haru is Haru, a boy who required being kidnapped to Australia to decide to go to college. A boy who would probably sit in the same bathtub in the same house until he died, the house crumbling around him, skin and bones slipping under the water. Change is anathema to him. A part of Rin wonders if he even sees how Rin has grown up, how he’s been looking at Haru like he’s something he wants to devour, or if he still just sees him as a kid with crooked teeth.

This, his confession, or whatever you want to call it, won’t be like Australia. That trip was a rescue mission, a desperate attempt to save Haru’s future before the clock ran out. This time, there’s no clock, just the ticking beat of Rin’s heart.

Haru needs time, with something like this. He needs to wade in slowly, get used to the water before diving in. So Rin will take his time.

It’s the perfect time of year for it. Summer vacation has slowed Iwatobi to a crawl, and Haru’s parents won’t be home until September. Rin can be over whenever he wants, which is pretty much all the time.

Today, though, they have plans that will take them out of the house and a few miles away. There’s a beach between Iwatobi and the next town over that’s mostly free of crowds. It’s rocky, not sandy and soft like their usual spot, but Rin knows Haru will appreciate the quiet.

They leave the house and make their way down to the road, stopping in front of Rin’s mother’s car. “What’s this?”

“It’s a car, Haru.”

He frowns. “Who’s driving us?”

“Me, stupid.”

Haru makes a face like Rin just said he was going to smack him.

“I know how to drive! I’ve had my license for, like, almost a month now.”

Haru is not convinced, clenching his hands on the dashboard the whole way there. But Rin gets them there in one piece. He’s expecting an apology — his driving was excellent — but Haru’s already out of the car and heading for the water before he realizes he’s gone. Rin chases after him, shedding clothes as he goes.

“Gah! That’s cold!” Rin yelps as the first waves crash against his legs.

Haru floats a few feet away. “It’s nice.” Rin wonders, not for the first time, if Haru is cold-blooded.

They try to race, but the water is too choppy — at least that’s the excuse Rin gives when he loses. They stay in the shallows, half swimming, half walking. Tiny fish poke at their ankles. The sun flashes off the waves, a few faraway boats floating by, seemingly without destinations.

Haru makes a perfect hand cannon and aims it at Rin, squirting water directly into his face.

“Ow! That got in my eye, you jerk!"

Haru laughs quietly, covering his mouth like he’s trying to hide it. God, Rin loves that sound. He chases it, splashing Haru back. He’s never been able to do the hand cannon thing, so he flattens his hand like a paddle and pushes it across the surface of the water, sending a wave over Haru’s head. When that’s not enough, he pulls Haru towards him and dunks his head underwater.

Rin doesn’t hold him down, but Haru stays under for a while, enjoying the company of the fish. When he surfaces, his face is just inches from Rin’s, both of them standing on the rocky seabed. Rin could kiss him like this, close the distance between them, lick the salt water from his lips. Haru would let him, he thinks; he doesn’t pull back, just looks at Rin with cloudy eyes, as though he’s waiting for instruction.

Rin takes a step back. Slow. They’re taking it slow.

“We should go back to the car now,” he says. “It’s freezing.”

Haru nods, and follows Rin out of the water. 

On the ride home, Haru falls asleep almost immediately, the dashboard safe from his clutch.

*

Rin basically moves into Haru’s house, bringing a futon from home for the bedroom floor. They spend all their time together, Rin dedicating as much of it as possible to Haru's favourite things: swimming, food, and their friends.

There’s a summer festival in the middle of break, and all of the Iwatobi club and most of Samezuka go. Rin lets Nitori and Nagisa dress him up in a yukata and hair clips for the event. They bring one for Haru, too, but he takes one look at it and says, “I’m not wearing that.”

“We can’t say we didn’t try,” Rei says.

The festival ends up being a lot of fun. Gou takes pictures and sends them to everyone later, and a shot of Rin and Haru together, Haru actually looking at the camera for once, ends up as Rin’s phone background.

They have another trip planned a week later, up into the mountains this time, but they have to cancel when a summer storm hits. “Want to watch movies instead?” Rin asks, after they have a late breakfast.

“Okay.”

Haru doesn’t have a couch, or much furniture at all, really, so they sit on pillows in the dining room, leaning against the wall. The laptop sits on the table in front of them, the rain pounding on the window to their left.

“You wanna pick the movie?”

“You can pick.”

“Well, if I’m picking, then we’re watching _Jaws_ ,” Rin says. It’s always been his favourite. “In English, so you can practice listening to it.”

Haru allows this. “Just put the subtitles on, please.”

Rin leans forward, pulling the film up on Netflix. He pauses while it loads, stretching his shoulders.

“Does your back hurt?” Haru asks.

“What? Oh, a bit.”

“From sleeping on the floor?”

“Yeah,” Rin says. “Don’t worry, though, it’s fine.” The last thing he wants is for Haru to insist he go home. 

Instead, Haru rises and gets another pillow from the cupboard, positioning it behind Rin’s back. He brings a blanket, too, and throws it over their legs. The movie starts playing.

It’s intimate sharing the blanket, even though they’re not touching. Rin’s sure they’ve done this before, probably with Makoto and Nagisa, but it feels different this time. He wonders if it’s all in his head, or if Haru’s feeling it, too.

They watch _Jaws_ and all three sequels, stopping only for dinner and tea. Haru complains that the movies get worse as they go, but when Rin offers to pick something else, Haru shakes his head.

The rain doesn’t let up all day, casting the room in shadow, and by _Jaws: The Revenge_ , Rin’s nodding off in front of the screen. Haru pokes him until he wakes up and sees the end credits rolling onscreen.

“You were snoring,” Haru says.

“Rude.”

“It’s true.” Haru closes the computer. “We should go upstairs.”

“Okay.”

Haru leads the way, not bothering to turn any lights on. Suddenly, in the doorway of the bedroom, he stops. 

“You should sleep in the bed,” he says.

“What?”

“Your back is sore.”

“Yeah, but I’m not going to make you sleep on the floor.”

Haru turns around, his face unreadable. “You can sleep in it with me.”

Rin blinks. “Are you sure? I know we did it in Australia, but…”

“It’s okay.” He’s already pulling the blankets back.

“Okay, then.”

They crawl in together, Rin against the wall. Haru stretches out on his stomach, not sleeping, but not talking, either. 

It doesn’t feel like it did in Australia, where it was awkward and painful and got overshadowed by more pressing concerns. Instead, it feels like when they were in the ocean, close enough to touch, watching each other to see what might happen.

Rin wonders if Haru is trying to tell him something by letting him sleep with him. He’s never been one for words, always preferring to speak through gestures and actions. But Rin doesn’t want it like this, even though Haru’s body is warm and close enough to touch. He wants to confess properly, and he wants Haru not just to accept it, but to want him back, too. He has a plan. So he holds back again, he doesn’t reach out and touch Haru, doesn’t pull him close. He lies still, preserving the distance between them, and listens to the rain.

*

“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” Haru asks.

“I have a key.” Rin sticks it in the lock and lets them into Iwatobi SC.

It was easy to get Coach Sasabe’s permission. All Rin had to do was promise to give free lessons at the club for a month. He’s got nothing better to do, anyway, and he can bring Haru along, watch him try to make small talk with children. It’ll be a blast.

For now, it’s almost midnight, and they have the place to themselves. Despite the renovations, in the dark the club looks the same as when they met here last year, just with water in the pool. But the atmosphere couldn’t be more different. 

Rin has so many memories here, a lot of them bad. He’s wasted so much time, on envy and pettiness and hatred. But this place is special, and it deserves a good memory, as thanks for everything it’s given him. He’s going to make that one tonight.

He and Haru swim for a while, but there’s no racing anymore. They mostly just float, feeling the water on their skin. When they’re tired, they wrap up in towels and sweats. Then they sit against the wall behind the starting blocks, basking in the moonlight filtering in through the window. It’s quiet, only the low buzz of the filter humming through the room.

The water in the pool settles, then goes completely still. Rin thinks that if they walked to the edge and looked down, they might see their reflections six years younger, a big-eyed boy with hair in his face and his grinning, shark-toothed friend. 

Rin doesn’t take his eyes off the water as he speaks. “Haru.”

“Mm?”

“I love you. I think I’ve loved you the whole time.”

Haru’s breath hitches, and for a second, doubt rushes into Rin’s mind, but then he looks at Haru, and he’s smiling—

“Took you long enough,” he says.

Rin’s doubt is replaced with pure affection, flooding into his veins. He surges forward, capture’s Haru’s face in his hands and kisses him. He’s still scared to move too fast, to scare Haru away, so he settles for soft kisses, lips pressed against chapped lips. They’ve been swimming in chlorinated water for an hour, but Haru still manages to taste like salt, like part of the ocean is contained within him.

And then Haru’s pulling back. “Rin,” he says. “Don’t cry.”

“Sorry.” Rin lets out a laugh. He doesn’t need to explain that they’re happy tears, that he feels the most whole he’s ever felt. Haru knows, and he tugs Rin back to him, not for a kiss, but for a hug. Rin holds him close and disobeys his order not to cry. He loses it completely when Haru puts his lips to Rin’s ear and whispers, “I love you too.”

They kiss again, deeper this time, tongues and teeth and hands sliding over wet skin. Rin can’t get close enough; he wants to break Haru open and crawl inside him, but he settles for laying back on the tile, pulling Haru down on top of him, until—

Until his elbow hits the hard floor, his cursing echoing through the room.

Haru jumps off him, and he immediately misses the weight. But he’s offering Rin his hand. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Rin lets Haru pull him up, but he stays sitting as Haru gathers their things, taking one last look around. He wants to memorize this night, be able to see it just as clearly when he closes his eyes.

Then Haru calls out his name and snaps him out of it. He gets up to join him. Haru waits for him at the locker room door, and when Rin catches up, he holds it open for him.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at kyrstin.tumblr.com!


End file.
